BY A. NORTON, M.L.A. 17 
seen these from a distance, and was informed that they 
were the same kind of tree, and that the area over which 
this unusual decay took place was from 3,000 to 4,000 
acres. These are instances where, on large patches of 
country, which have come under my own observation, the 
whole of the trees died without any reason being readily 
assignable for their doing so. But during the years which 
have elapsed since the peppermints on Bergen-op-Zoom 
suddenly died, the general appearance of the forest has in 
many places undergone considerable change. Ring-barking 
has been largely practised on New England as elsewhere, 
but over thousands of acres which have not been interfered 
with in this way the foliage has become comparatively scanty, 
and most of the living trees of any age are disfigured with 
dead branches, a certain sign that they have passed their 
prime. Besides this, there are many dead trees scattered 
through the bush, and four years ago, when I last had an 
opportunity of observing them, these were very much more 
frequent than a few years earlier. In this less sweeping 
work of decay the common white gums were those most 
affected, so far as I could judge. 
Here then we have two striking facts: first, the sudden 
decay of large areas of one class of tree ; next, the general 
lack of vitality in several kinds at a subsequent period. 
What concerns those who interest themselves in such 
matters is to try to suggest some probable explanation of 
these abnormal occurrences. Some writers who have dealt 
with similar phenomena in other localities, have attributed 
the sudden destruction to opossums. These animals have 
very largely increased owing to the disappearance of 
aboriginal blacks ; and it is said that in some localities they 
completely denude large areas of trees of their leaves, and 
afterwards eat off all the young shoots continually until at 
last the trees succumb. Perhaps this is a correct theory. 
For my own part I need only observe that, although I have 
been in localities where there were great numbers of 
opossums, I have never seen trees, except a solitary 
specimen here and there, which have been so denuded, and 
I am certain that most of the dead trees which I have seen 
have not died from that cause. That some persons have 
persuaded themselves that opossums have been the chief 
Cc 
